Last year’s Future 50 were a heady mix of serious technology, branding vim and digital innovation. The hot trend was (and doubtless will be again) the emergence of collaborative consumption as essential for future success.

Collaborative consumption uses network technologies and social media to commercialise the notion of “what’s mine is yours”. Communities of common interest are rapidly formed that would never, previously, have had the ability to congregate, let alone forge a business relationship. Traditional human activities such as sharing, lending and renting take on dynamic possibility. Under-utilised assets suddenly become productive contributors.

OneFineStay, for example, turns your unoccupied home into a hotel while you’re away on holiday. The moment you step out of the door and head for the airport, founder Greg Marsh’s team arrive to clean, change the linen, update your insurance policy and fill your house with guests. Guests, says Marsh, experience an “unhotel” with more space and personality than a traditional hotel.

Such businesses “save consumers time and money; and they make them money. Also they play to the powerful anti-materialist and eco trends within society,” says lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, a big advocate of collaborative consumption.

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